Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers will soon expand in central Indiana—and the grand opening of one of them is right around the corner.
The Bloomington location is set to open on Aug. 23 at Kirkwood Avenue and Dunn Road, just in time for students to return to the Indiana University campus.
But that’s just the start of the chain’s “big plans” for Indiana.
The chicken chain will also open an Avon location on U.S. 36 in November, with another to follow in on Campus Parkway and Cabela Parkway in Noblesville in December.
Other Raising Cane’s restaurants are scheduled to open in Muncie (2023) and Merrillville (2025).
Indiana already has a pair of Raising Cane’s restaurants in Mishawaka and West Lafayette.
Raising Cane’s opened its first restaurant in 1996 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The menu is composed entirely of chicken fingers; even its chicken sandwich uses three chicken strips!
Sides include crinkle-cut fries, Texas toast and coleslaw. Founder and CEO Todd Graves came up with the idea of the limited menu.
According to the Raising Cane’s website, a business professor told him a chicken finger restaurant “would never work.” He worked at an oil refinery and served as a commercial fisherman until he raised enough money to get a small business loan and eventually opened his first restaurant.
Since then, Raising Cane’s has grown to include 640 stores, with plans to reach 700 by the end of the year.
The chain is named after Graves’ Labrador retriever. There have been three different Raising Canes over the years.
